Mangalore Trip Part 4 – Temples in and around Mangalore

Sharavu Maha Ganapathi Temple

We first headed to the nearest temple from our hotel:  Sharavu Maha Ganapathi Temple.

Lord Ganesha is seen in a unique form here with ten hands with Siddhalakshmi seated to his right and lion as his vehicle instead of the usual mouse. History gives a long reason for this and this temple is many centuries old but renovated recently. To put in current perspective, in Kali yuga people are more interested in material gains. Hence it is said that Lord Ganesha appeared in this form to remove obstacles and bestow wealth and prosperity to his devotees.

Kudroli Sri Bhagavathi Temple

This temple is said to be 800 years old and the four temple complexes are renovated with beautiful maroon and gold colors.

Katil Shree Durga Parameswari

This beautiful temple is situated on an islet near River Nandini. This is the only temple that has a live river flowing through it. The river is named after the daughter of holy cow Kamadhenu. The temple main diety of the temple is Sri Durga Parameswari. The temple is in the middle of hills and the drive itself is through lush greenery. The drive to Kateel from Mangalore is around 20 km and takes around 40 mins. You have to go past the Mangalore airport and pass through ghat section.

Kadri Manjunatha Temple

The city of Mangalore itself is on hills. Kadri Manjunath temple is situated on the highest hill in Mangalore. This 9^th century temple is in square shape and has nine water tanks behind it.  It is believed that Parashurama who was living in Sahyadri, killed the kshathriyas who were cruel and donated the lands to Kashyapa. Parashurama threw his axe into the sea and created a place for his penance. Yielding to Parashurama's prayers Lord Shiva appeared to him as Manjunatha along with Goddess Parvathi and stayed at Kadri for the betterment of the world.

There is a natural spring at an elevated location where there is a natural spring. Water comes out of the mouth of a cow shape. This is called the Gomukha. This water is let into nine tanks. People take a dip in each of the tanks which they believe will absolve them from doshas.

There are multiple temples within the compound. There are steps which take you further up the hill and there are many more temples there. This marks the end of our trip to Mangalore.

Mangalore Trip Part 3 – Dussehra in Mangalore

After a refreshing afternoon nap, we set off to check out the local places within Mangalore. Since it was the main festival day of Navarathri, the whole of Mangalore was decked up with lights along major roads. Most of the market places were closed. Couple of local beaches that can be visited are Panambur beach and Tannirbhavi beach. The way to Panambur beach is smeely since there are industries on the way.

The main diety of the city is Mangaladevi. We went to see the temple and the planned festivities. The procession along the streets is famous during this festive time. Royal tiger dance is a popular folk dance during dusshera. Young men form troops, wear tiger costume and dance like a tiger.

After aarthi at the main temple, idols of Navadurgas along with Ganesha and sharada are taken on procession. For this a special chariot is decorated grandly with flowers and lights. This is pulled with thick ropes. The temple arranges for various cultural programmes and these are shown across the city on big screens.

Various tableau decorated in different themes follow in the procession. The procession goes on till wee hours of next day. 

Mangalore Trip Part 2 – Udupi Temple and Malpe beach

Post breakfast we started off to Udupi. There two things that one cannot miss in Udupi – Krishna temple and local cuisine. The weather is relatively hotter. Since we went in end of October, it was pleasant by local standards. Due to Navarathri there was a long queue but the darshan of Lord Krishna made up for all the wait. On the way we get to see the Lord’s Elephant Subadre (named after one of krishna’s wives) and their Gowshala.

Kanakadasa ,a pious worshipper and devotee of Lord Krishna was refused darshan of the lord since he was from a particular community. He stayed in a makeshift hermitage in front of Krishna mutt singing verses in Krishna’s name. There was an earthquake in the night and the outer temple wall cracked such a way that there was a wide enough opening for Kanakadasa to have darshana of the idol. Till today, devotees worship Lord by praying through the same window where kanakadasa was seeing the offerings/Pooja from outside. 

Since cameras were not allowed inside I am posting a pic from official website.

We completed darshan by 11 am. We set off to Malpe beach nearby even though it was close to noon. This being a fishing hub we have to pass the fishermen’s houses to reach the beach. The way is smelly but the beach is beautiful.

Though hot sun on top, the cool breeze of the beach changed our mood. Never ending stretches of white sand, turquoise blue waters, colorful shells, a glimpse of St. Mary’s island, coconut trees along the beach add to the never before seen natural beauty.

Apart from the neat and clean beach(Malpe beach is called a virgin beach), there are many activities to do. There are many islands nearby. You can visit the St. Mary’s island which is known for its volcanic rocks mostly vertical and hexagonal ones. There is a fort on Daria-Bahadurgad island. There are jets that you can drive or water skiing or para gliding.

My children collected many colorful sea shells. There are restaurants along the beach but mostly sea food on the menu. Being strict vegetarians, we hit the national highway towards Mangalore and stopped over for lunch at a south Indian restaurant.

Mangalore Trip Part 1 - Someshwar Beach Temple

Dussehra holiday time is perfect for planning long drive trips. Hence, off we went towards the west of India which had both beautiful beaches and temples. We managed to cover a few places over three days. I am posting separate blogs for each of the places visited.

We started early in the morning (around 4.30 am) on a Friday and yet got stuck in traffic at Yeswanthpur for an hour. We cursed ourselves for not selecting another route out of the city, but to be honest we dint expect a traffic jam at the under-construction bridge at 5 am in the morning. After few manouvers in the small roads, we managed to wriggle out of the traffic and hit the NH 48 towards Hassan. Route is pretty straight forward.

Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Mangalore

We stopped two times – once for breakfast and once near Sakleshpur to admire the nature. Drive was beautiful and roads are good. We reached our Hotel in Mangalore at 1.30 pm hungry for lunch. The Hotel was in the main market area. Being vegetarians we had to search a little bit for veg restaurants. Over the next two days we identified a few and visited those regularly.

Our first visit was to Someshwar beach and temple which is famous locally for its view of sunset. Mangalore to Someshwar via Edapally-Panvel highway took 20 mins since there hardly was any traffic (13 kms from Mangalore). We reached there at 4pm. The temple was closed and we had an hour’s time to spend in beach.

The beach was clean and neat with very few people. The huge rocks in the beach (known as Rudra Shile) there gave a good view of the horizon. We heard that not many tourists know about this beach and hence the crowd is less. Not many shops around. So better carry food/ water. There are red crabs in the beach at some points, hence it is better to be careful before venturing into inhabited places of the beach.

The Someshwar temple is on top of a hillock on the beach. There are steps at the back of the temple which give access to the beach. The temple is considered as one of the 12 sacred shiva kshetras of India. It is known as Rudrapada kshetra. It is believed that the temple existed from the time of Ramayana and it is also believed that Pandavas worshipped here.

There is a Parasuram temple at the corner which gives a beautiful view of the sea. 

We spent our time till sunset there and headed back to Mangalore. The sunset view is just indescribable in mere words. Must see for yourself.